Shane Mage
"This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, kindling in measures and going out in measures."
Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 30
> > Here's the supreme irony. Those who won't vote for Kucinich
>> because they think he can't win justify that decision on the
>> grounds of "not throwing your vote away," "supporting someone with
>> a chance to win," or "casting an effective vote." All of these
>> justifications reject voting as an expressive act ("the ballot as a
>> place to make a statement") in favor of voting as a causally
>> efficacious act. But a moment's reflection will reveal that one's
>> individual vote has zero causal effect. Not only is it
>> extraordinarily unlikely that an election will be decided by one
>> vote, but given the uncertainties of any vote-counting mechanism,
>> one's vote is necessarily within the statistical margin of vote-
>> counting error. It is therefore IRRATIONAL to vote in order to
>> have an effect, an a fortiori irrational to vote (on grounds of
>> causal efficacy) for a candidate who has a chance rather than a
>> candidate who does not. Ironically, those who invoke instrumental
>> rationality as the reason for voting as they do are the most
>> deluded of all. The argument for not voting is very strong. The
>> argument for voting as an expressive act is much weaker, though
>> perhaps viable. But no one should vote because they think their
>> vote makes a difference, and no one should vote under the sway of
>> the flawed argument that voting for one candidate has an effect
>> while voting for another does not.
>
>Michael McIntyre
>
>>
>>
>> On Mar 23, 2007, at 5:01 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>>
>>> Dennis Kucinich will be on the ballot in the DP caucuses and
>>> primaries, but most "anti-war" DP voters won't vote for him. I
>>> conclude that they don't have the courage of their convictions.
>>
>> You make it sound like a moral failing, or some sort of other
>> personal defect. Most people sympathetic with Kucinich's politics
>> think he doesn't have a prayer - not merely of winning, but even
>> scoring above 5%. Yes, that's self-fulfilling, but unlike a lot of
>> leftists, many voters don't think of the ballot as a place to make a
>> statement, but as a way of supporting someone with a chance to win.
>> Until you can change that perception, which means changing reality to
>> at least some degree, what you see as individual moral failings will
>> keep repeating themselves.
>>
>> Doug
>
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